Republican presumptive Presidential nominee Donald Trump breezed into California like a wiff of wind from the San Diego County dump and educated Californians on the REAL facts about the drought that has led to water restrictions, financial hardship for farmers, and a slew of news stories and analysis about how bad the situation is. He, in effect, yelled “”NOT!”
According to Trump, there is no California drought. It’s apparently part of a conspiracy. To save a fish.
These people are seemingly akin to the ones who he suggested over the years helped Barack Obama hide his REAL Kenyan birth, helped stall the (not true) revelation that Ted Cruz’s dad hung out with Lee Harvey Oswald, or conspired to bring Justin Bieber to the United States.
Is Ted Cruz’s dad the one with his hands on California’s water tap? Or will he any day suggest it was Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren? USA TODAY:
California suffered one of its driest years in 2015. And last year the state hit its driest four-year period on record.
But Donald Trump isn’t sold. The presumptive GOP nominee told supporters in Fresno, Calif., on Friday night that no such dry spell exists.
Trump said state officials were simply denying water to Central Valley farmers to prioritize the Delta smelt, a native California fish nearing extinction — or as Trump called it, “a certain kind of three-inch fish.”
“We’re going to solve your water problem. You have a water problem that is so insane. It is so ridiculous where they’re taking the water and shoving it out to sea,” Trump told thousands of supporters at the campaign event.
Welcome to 21st century politics, where media types now simply state and do not decry the toxic impact Trump has had on our political discourse. For centuries politicians have been accused of distorting the facts and lying — but no one has pulled non facts out of the air like Donald Trump. He repeats them over and over despite fact, checks and then his followers do, too, as does some of the conservative political entertainment media.
Repetition of these political mantras turns it into a kind of perception of reality. Except is not supported by facts or science, which apparently are also part of some big conspiracy are akin to the ones that helped Barack Obama hide his Kenyan birth, helped out Lee Harvey Oswald, or conspired to bring Justin Bieber to the United States.
The U.S. Drought Monitor keeps tabs on the California drought. But here’s what a recent graphic shows for May:
Anyone who has a .9877% interest in getting the facts can spend about 10 seconds doing a Google web search on “California drought” and they’d get this.
Or they could spend another 10 seconds looking up “causes California drought” and get this.
But Trump doesn’t take time to do this kind of search, although he apparently does read the National Enquirer, and whatever emails Roger Stone sends him.
Susan Wright, in a diary on the popular conservative website Red State writes:
Yes. That’s an easy one. Just open up the water. I’m sure California’s lawmakers are hearing this and feeling pretty ridiculous, about now.
For the past five years, the state of California has been struggling with drought conditions. Lawmakers and environmentalists have struggled with finding solutions to the water shortage issue.
While local officials try to find a way to direct water to the area farmers, environmentalists insist on fighting to preserve an endangered species of fish.
Personally, that would be one gone fish, but… California.
While House Republicans have fought to have water from the San Joaquin River Delta redirected to the farming areas of the Central Valley, Democrats have cited endangered species protections as their reasoning for blocking the measure.
It’s a complicated political mess, with neither side willing to compromise.
…Maybe Trump can make a deal with the weatherman and between the two of them, they can end California’s drought?
But there you have it. A fact-free, political mantra and name calling political campaign — one that could indeed propel him into the White House.
Resistance may indeed be futile. And Trump is making it clear he is going to run his general election campaign the same way he ran in the primaries.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.